


Glimpses

by Settiai



Category: Black Ships - Jo Graham
Genre: Multi, One Shot, Yuletide, Yuletide 2018, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 21:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17149559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: I woke up to darkness.





	Glimpses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eternal Scribe (Shadowcat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowcat/gifts).



I woke up to darkness, distant dreams echoing in my mind.

The dreams themselves were vague, and there was nothing about them that seemed to hold any urgency. Whoever they were meant for, whether in the past or the future, my face was not the one that person would wear. That much I knew with certainty.

With a quiet sigh, I sat up and looked around. I was careful to move as little as possible. It would not due for anyone else to be woken up solely due to my dreams. We all had roles that we would have to return to in the daylight, and it would not do for any of us not to have as much rest as we could get.

Moonlight shone through the doorway on the far side of the room, slipping past the edges of the thin cloth that covered it. It was difficult to tell from where I was lying, but it looked like it was well into the night. The dawn was still distant, and not even the most dedicated of the fishermen would be awake yet.

Neas and Xandros were both sleeping, their chests rising and falling with the steady movement of those who were truly slumbering. They looked younger in their sleep, more like the youth they must have been once upon a time in Wilusa That Was.

I stared down at the two of them, and for just a moment their features seemed to blur and change. It was as if I were seeing a multitude of bodies and faces overlapping, male and female and otherwise. Lifetimes passing in the blink of an eye.

Then, just like that, they were themselves again. There was nothing there except for the familiar visage of the two men who had someone managed to slip their way into my heart despite my best efforts.

I closed my eyes and simply breathed.

"Sybil?"

Neas's voice was quiet, barely more than a breath of air, but it stood out in the stillness of the room. My eyes opened again more of their own accord than by any intention.

Xandros was still asleep, but Neas's eyes were open. He was watching me warily, and I could see in his face that he was waiting to find out if it was merely restlessness that had me awake in the middle of the night or if it was something more. No matter what there was between us on the rare nights like this, he was still king first and foremost. And I was his priestess. The voice of my Lady.

That was why he called me Sybil even now as we shared a bed. He didn't call me Gull in my own tongue as Xandros did. That wasn't the woman he knew, even when Xandros called me by that name as Neas listened. We each had our roles to play, even within the privacy of our own beds.

"It was simply a dream," I said quietly. "I did not mean to wake you."

"A dream?" Neas repeated. His unspoken question was clear.

I shook my head. "Only a dream," I said. "Nothing more. Not for me. Not for you."

He watched my face for a moment, as if he was looking for something there. Then he nodded. "You should try to get more sleep," he said gently. "It's too early even for you to be awake."

I smiled without quite meaning to. Then I sighed and lowered myself back down onto the bed. It wasn't quite large enough for the three of us, and I had to be careful not to wake Xandros. If he had not woken yet, he most likely would not be doing so, but I did not want to risk it. One of us should have a full night's sleep at least.

Neas shifted as I slid back down beside him, leaning forward to press a kiss to my bare shoulder. He smelled faintly of wine and bread, left over from the feast that night. It was a familiar smell, one of home.

Even after all these years, it still surprised me sometimes to realize that we had found a home. There were some mornings when I would wake up and halfway expect the ground below me to be shifting in the waves, the wood of a ship under my feet as we traveled the seas looking for the place that was meant for us.

"You should sleep," Neas said, his voice a bit firmer than it had been a moment earlier. More kingly. More like an order.

I smiled into the darkness and started to shift so that I could face him. Before I could, there was movement on my other side.

"How about both of you go back to sleep?" Xandros asked, his voice thick with sleep. "It's the middle of the night."

I let out a surprised laugh, not surprised to hear Neas's own mixing in with mine.

"Go back to sleep, Xandros," Neas said firmly. I felt him shifting, propping himself up enough so that he could lean over me to press a kiss somewhere against Xandros's skin.

His barely skin brushed against mine at the movement, and I couldn't help but smile. It said quite a bit that all any of us wanted to do just now was sleep. We were all getting older, the fiery passion of youth fading behind us. Time was passing, slowly but surely.

Neas shifted again, moving away from Xandros. Then he sighed. "Xandros is right. We should sleep."

"Xandros is always right," Xandros muttered under his breath.

Neas snorted at that. It was a fond sound, years of friendship and more there for anyone to hear.

I smiled as I stared up into the darkness, shifting so that I was flat on my back. My hands moved at both sides of me, sliding over skin until I found both Neas's and Xandros's hands.

On ones side of me, Xandros hummed quietly. On the other, Neas didn't make a sound, but his hand tightened around my own.

I closed my eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter. (https://twitter.com/settiai)


End file.
